BEARING THE BEER

Think of the time when you left home all alone to be the part of a new world , a completely different world with new people, a new environment and new thoughts. There must be many of you who must have faced this situation earlier, specially when you leave home to stay in hostels. The first and foremost thing is that you miss your parents and the so called world of “home”, Home-sweet-home as we say it to be. A lot of thing changes. A LOT actually. It depends on you how you change yourself..Its all about a choice that you make n mind you, the choice is all yours coz it is then time when you become a fully independent individual to make your own choice.

Well, too much of circumlocution. Let us move on to elucidate what the post title says. Now, that was the first time I was out of home, far away from my parents. It was the Silicon valley of India-Bangalore. It seemed all a very different place to me. You gotta get used to the pace of the city and run as fast as you can, or you get run over by the city!!I lived there in a PG, a pathetic place to be, or maybe it was the first time I was about to live in a place away from home for around 2 months.My only friends, my PG-mate cum work partner from Tamil Nadu, Mr RB. And not to forget Rohit Bhaiya, my some days wala room-mate,a very nice guy he was.

Dunno where to start the story. It might sound abrupt but lets move on to the point. RB had a friend coming to his room one day. Then I used to have no room partners. That day, they decided to booze. RB came to me requesting me to swap our rooms for the day. I obliged. Well, since that day, RB started lecturing me about beer, whisky, wine and stuff. Specially beer. Like its good for digestion, has medicinal properties and blah blah, I don’t remember. Or let me put it this way, I became interested to know ;).So then it happened. A very wicked idea struck my bloody head. And you can very much guess what it was.

So we planned it 2 weeks before we were gonna leave. But that day we came back from work around 8.So we decided to call it off for that day. So it was postponed for the next week. The next week on Friday ( I was to leave on Monday), we were again late from work and moreover, we had forgotten to take the key-opener from the laboratory. So, I had a queer feeling ”Maybe God doesn’t want me to try out wrong things” :D. But suddenly RB remembered about the cans and off we go, to the mall. That was the first time I was in a liquor shop looking at the beer bottles as if they were Katrinas and Priyankas. Till then,I had been asking RB to get me something sweet or tasty. He had laughed so hard when I had asked him about sweet or sugared beer that I preferred to let him make a choice. As he knew, it was gonna be my first time, he got something light for me. So, two cans of Kingfisher Beer, 100 Bucks in total. Dunno I was feeling so very guilty when I bought them, as if I was going to lose my virginity :P. But I thought of giving my guilt a break for sometime.

Then we went to the restaurant to have dinner. There, the dinner menu used to be horrible. Idli, vada, dosa, sambar blah blah. I pity myself for the 2 months I stayed there. Then I reached my room, called up my parents(my fone bills soared very high in those 2 months, so much so that RB suspected me to have a gf :P) and then the time came for the encore :D. I opened the can (350 ml). Rb instructed me “Dude,This is not your roti-sabji, so just don’t go on drinking, drink till you feel ok”. And then, I took a sip expecting it to taste like some regal juice. YUCK!!!!!!As bitter as bitter can be. A sip more and I was wondering how to finish the can. Morever, there still existed a sense of guilt and apprehension. What if I get too intoxicated, vomit or go outta control or maybe lose my senses!!I hardly had any idea. Well I had had 4-5 sips by then. Then the first thing I thought was to open the Bingo mad angels achari masti packet lying in my cupboard. Asked RB “what if I dip the bingo in beer and drink”. I dunno if what I said was so funny again that he laughed really hard, I preferred keeping quite and taking achari masti to assist my taste buds to let the beer in. Sip by Sip,I drank the whole can and nothing happened. It felt just as normal as it was.

My very next question to RB was “ Dude, why do u people take this? U see it tastes so horrible and nothing happens too”. RB-“You had less of it, when u have around a litre, u get a kick and that feels so good”. Me- “Is it just that? Then you could have told me, I would have kicked you on your ass”. Then, I called home again. Also two of my friends to apprise about the achievement :D (though I admit it was a very stupid thing to do). My friends didn’t believe me:(.Thereafter I had a bit o chit chat and we watched the FIFA semi-finals that day. And off to sleep after that.

Back home, I did tell my parents about it.I won’t mention what happened after that. But I regret it. Not just coz my parents chided me but coz of the fact that I tried something which was even yucky than bitter gourd, spent 100 bucks for it and still couldn’t realize its importance. It is rather good to have a glass of kareila juice. That would rather help ur body. I still possess the can as a memento :D. But I request all those who are reading this and plan to taste or try any sort of beer or whatever of that sort, DON’T!!Its not worth it. Better to have a Pepsi and stay a liquor-virgin forever ;)

Just as I said-We have a choice to make and it depends on us what we do. Anyways, the Bangalore visit was something I would treasure. Taught me quite a few things. Included in it was “Bearing the Beer”

Signing Off
A.M.